‘You’re unbelievable.’
‘So I’ve been told.’
His gaze rested on her like a heavy, palpable thing, assessing, understanding. Knowing. She drew a breath.
‘Look, Chase, I know I’m uptight and you think I need to relax. I probably seem like a joke to you.’
‘You don’t,’ Chase said quietly. ‘I promise you, Millie, this is no joke.’
She looked away, discomfited by the sudden intensity in his voice. ‘I don’t want to be your project,’ she said quietly. ‘The reckless playboy teaches the uptight workaholic how to relax and have fun. Shows her how to really live.’ She bit her lip hard, surprised by the sudden catch of tears in her throat. ‘That isn’t what I want from you.’
Chase took a step closer to her. ‘Then maybe you should tell me what you do want.’
She forced herself to meet his gaze. ‘Mind-blowing sex, remember?’
‘I remember. And I remember the deal we made. One week, and you give me everything.’
He’d come closer, close enough so she could feel the heat of him, inhaled the scent that she was starting to realise was just Chase. Sun and musk and male. She drew a shaky breath. ‘I don’t know how much I have to give.’
He touched her chin with her hand, his fingers like a whisper against her skin. ‘Someone hurt you. I get that. But this can be different, Millie.’
She shook her head, swallowed the hot lump of tears. ‘No one hurt me, Chase. Not the way you think.’
‘No questions about the past, I know,’ he said, the hint of a smile in his voice. ‘And this week isn’t meant to be some lesson. It’s just us—enjoying each other.’
Her breath came out in a soft hiss. ‘OK.’
He stroked her cheek, and she had to fight not to close her eyes and surrender to that little caress. ‘And I enjoy seeing you open up like a flower in the sun. I like seeing your face surprised by a smile.’
‘Don’t.’
‘Is that scary, Millie? Is that out of your comfort zone?’
She swallowed. ‘Yes.’
His other hand came up to cradle her face, just as he had last night. Had it only been last night? She felt as if she’d known this man for years. And he knew her.
‘How long has it been,’ he asked, ‘since you were happy?’
‘Two years.’ The answer slipped out before she could think better of it. ‘But really longer. Two years since I’ve known.’ She stared at him, knowing he was drawing more from her than she’d ever intended to give, and also knowing that she wanted to give it. One week. For one week she wanted intimacy. Physical, emotional, intense. All of it. All in.
Chase was gazing back at her, his expression both tender and fierce, and then slowly, deliberately, he dipped his head and brushed his lips with her own.
A soft sigh of surrender escaped her as her lips parted underneath his. His lips were all the things she’d thought they would be: soft, hard, cool, warm. And so achingly gentle.
He brushed his lips across hers a second and third time, like a greeting. Then he touched his tongue to the corner of her mouth, and then the other corner, as if he were asking her how she was. A wordless conversation of mouths. Her lips parted wider, accepting. I’m good.
He deepened the kiss, his hands tightening as they cradled her face, and Millie’s hands came up to bunch on the bare skin of his shoulders. Yet even as sensation swirled through her another part of her was stepping back and analysing everything.
His hands felt bigger than Rob’s. His body was harder. His kiss was more demanding and yet more gentle at the same time. More assured. Yet could she even remember the last time she and Rob had kissed? That last day, all she’d had were harsh words, impatient sighs...
She hadn’t even said goodbye.
Chase lifted his head, pulling back a little bit so Millie blinked in surprise. ‘Your lack of response is a bit of a buzz-kill, you know.’
‘What?’ She gaped like a fish. ‘I wasn’t—’
‘No,’ Chase agreed, ‘you weren’t. It started off rather nicely, but then you went somewhere else in your head.’ She couldn’t deny it, and his gaze narrowed. ‘What were you thinking about, Millie?’ She swallowed, said nothing. ‘You were thinking about some other guy, weren’t you?’
‘No!’ Millie protested, then bit her lip. She couldn’t lie, not to Chase. ‘I couldn’t help it.’
For the first time since she’d seen him, he looked angry. Or maybe even hurt. Emotion flashed in his eyes like thunder and then he deliberately relaxed. ‘I know you think too much. You’ve got to turn off that big brain of yours, Millie.’
‘I know.’ Did she ever. The whole reason she’d embarked on this fling of theirs was to keep herself from thinking. Remembering. Tormenting herself with guilty regrets.
‘Let’s go back to the boat,’ Chase said. ‘We should get back to St Julian’s before dark.’
Silently Millie followed him back through the grove to the slender beach and then onto the boat. Chase didn’t so much as look back at her once, or help her onto the boat. Any warmth between them seemed to have evaporated. Millie fetched her clothes, now thankfully dry but stiff as a board and caked with salt, and clutched them to her. She stood uncertainly on the deck while Chase set the boat free from its moorings, his movements taut with suppressed energy—or emotion? Was he angry with her?
‘Is there somewhere I can change?’
‘Don’t bother.’ He didn’t even look at her as he reached for another line.
‘What?’ She didn’t like seeing Chase this way, the hard lines of his face transformed into harshness—or maybe just indifference. Gone was the charming, charismatic man she’d come to like—and trust. ‘I don’t want to walk into the resort in my underwear,’ she said, trying to joke, but Chase turned to her with a dangerously bland expression.
‘You can put your clothes on after.’
‘After?’
‘After we have sex. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it, Millie? No messy emotions or entanglements, no getting to know each other.’ He spread his arms wide, a cool smile curling his mouth. ‘Well, here we are. Alone in an ocean, and there’s a perfectly good bed in the cabin below. No reason not to hop to it.’
Millie stared, swallowed. ‘You mean now?’
‘Right now.’ He jerked a thumb in direction of the ladder that led below deck. ‘Let’s go.’
WHAT the hell was he doing? Being a total bastard, judging by the look of shocked horror on Millie’s face. But he was angry, even if he shouldn’t be. The thought of Millie thinking of some other jerk while he was pouring his soul into that kiss filled him with a blind rage.
‘Well?’ Chase arched an eyebrow and put his hands on his hips. ‘What are you waiting for?’
Her teeth sank into those worry marks on her lower lip. She clutched her clothes tighter to her chest. ‘Somehow, with the way you’re looking at me, I don’t think it’s going to be mind-blowing.’
‘Leave that to me.’
She